Wednesday, July 18, 2007

another matter altogether

The AIPAC spy scandal: now this is one case that seems to have been dropped into a bottomless pit, but no, it has merely been delayed by the Scooter Libby-esque tactics of the defense team. Lawyers for Steve Rosen, formerly the Israel lobby's spark plug and chief Washington lobbyist, and Keith Weissman, AIPAC's Iran specialist-in-residence, have subpoenaed everyone from Condi Rice to the Israeli "diplomats" their clients handed off classified information to. The Wall Street Journal reports that lawyers involved in the case are now shooting for an October trial. The defense is "graymailing" the government, by making the price of prosecution so high in terms of revealing U.S. secrets – and potentially damaging national security – that they're hoping the Justice Department just drops the case.

How likely is that? After all this effort, one would think the Justice Department would persevere, but there is a lot of political pressure coming from both parties to quash this case. The Democrats in Congress have no qualms about investigating and holding hearings on the Libby case, but the AIPAC spy trial – or lack of such a trial – is another matter altogether.